Thinking pink... Or maybe just green

Katie Nasenbenny

For a fairly large chunk of the National Football League (NFL) season the green fields and hulking players we watch every Sunday are accented with highlighter pink.  During the month of October, the NFL observes National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, to raise both awareness and funds for the millions of women and their families who are affected by the disease each year.  It is fair to ask, however, that in a league where the athletes, coaches, officials, and pundits are 99.999% male, wouldn’t it make more sense for the NFL to promote awareness for a cancer that typically affects men, say prostate cancer, than a cancer so strongly associated with women?  And since we’re on the subject of league wide initiatives, why would the NFL make a note of observing Hispanic Heritage Month when only 13 of the 2,603 players in 2011 regarded themselves as Latino (Lapchick, Costa, Sherrod & Anjorin, 2012)?  I don’t mean to get crazy cynical here, and trust me, I love the NFL as much as the next gal, but the answer is pretty obvious isn’t it?  These promotions aren’t truly about the people they are helping; they are about showing these groups that the NFL considers them important, even though they are not represented on screen.  They are about creating a product that people from all walks of life can relate to, even when the participants are fairly homogeneous.  They are about getting the most viewers as possible, and ultimately, about helping the NFL to make the most money it can.  The NFL recognizes the value of the Female and Hispanic populations and wants to tap into the power they hold.  By having players wear pink for a month and calling the Chicago Bears “Los Osos de Chicago” for two games a year, the NFL can capture an even greater audience and inject even more people with football fever.

The year was 2009 and it was the first October that the NFL was taken over by pink.  As a granddaughter of a breast cancer survivor and a big football fan, the NFL’s willingness to support the fight against this disease really resonated with me.  I’m sure others felt the same way.  Watching huge men run at each other at full spread while embracing their feminine side by sporting pink gloves, shoe laces, and armbands turned NFL Sundays into a feel good affair.  Things only looked even better once you find out that the NFL has donated 4.5 million dollars to the American Cancer Society since the start of their campaign!  The league seems to be doing a hell of a lot for the fight against breast cancer…  On the surface.  But then you realize that the NFL made nine BILLION dollars in revenue last year alone, and that only eight percent of the money spent on NFL pink gear actually made it to the American Cancer Society (Garofalo, 2013).  I guess it’s all relative, huh?  If NFL was sincerely dedicated to fighting breast cancer, I’ve got a feeling they could give a little bit more…

The NFL may argue that any money donated is more than the amount that would be had they not begun their campaign and that the amount of awareness about the disease the NFL has helped to provide is invaluable.  While both of these statements are true, it’s hard to make the claim that the benefits of the NFL’s Breast Cancer Awareness month are mutual between the League and the ladies affected by the disease – In the long run, the NFL receives so much more than what they give.  In fact, according to Nielsen, in recent years “the NFL has surpassed the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball in the share of its regular-season viewers who are female” (Kitroeff, 2013).  Additionally, more women watched the Super Bowl (43 million) than the Grammys or the Academy Awards in 2012 (Kitroeff, 2013).  By showing that they “care” about doing away with breast cancer, the NFL has reached out to the main people who are affected by it, and they are returning the favor in the form of viewership.  Now that they have the ladies’ attention, don’t expect the NFL to relinquish this hold.  They are so concerned about making the league female friendly, that Chicago Bears All-Pro wide receiver Brandon Marshall was fined $10,500 when he decided to wear green shoes to support Mental Health Awareness week, a week that happened fall during Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Garofalo, 2013).  But if the NFL cares so much about community, why would they fine one of their star players for supporting a cause he believes in?  Why?  Because the number of people affected by mental illness, though large, doesn’t compare to the 155 million females in the United States.  Additionally, the people affected by mental health disorders aren’t viewed by the NFL as having much purchasing power or the ability to influence family’s television viewing habits.  So in truth, they just aren’t valued.  All groups ate NOT created equal. 

Not only does the NFL recognize females as a valuable viewing demographic, they also understand that the lifeline of their business stems from mothers’ willingness to allow their children to participate in football.  Participation levels in Pop Warner youth football leagues are down 10 percent since 2010 and this could stem disaster for the NFL in the next few decades  (Doyel, 2013).  Due to the new information surfacing about the link between the constant blows to the head obtained through football and serious brain and neck damage later in life, moms are thinking twice before letting their children play this risky game.  When participation at the lowest levels of the sport drops, so does the talent level, and this may cause the NFL to lose fans down the road.  Conceivably, if more women are able to see the positives the sport has to offer, they will be more likely to let their future Aaron Rodgers and Adrian Petersons play football as youngsters (Kitroeff, 2013).  This has become a prime focus in the NFL, just check out the commercial below.  One of the league’s stars, Tom Brady, is speaking directly to a mom, about all the precautions the league is taking to prevent serious head injuries.

Mothers, the masters of the domestic sphere, often make the decisions for their families; the NFL is hoping that by influencing the neck, the rest of the body will follow.

Females aren’t the only group the NFL has actively targeted in recent years. Similarly, the Hispanic population is fast becoming one of the most valued demographics in the eyes of the NFL. Recently, the league has observed National Hispanic Heritage Month from mid September to mid October.  In 2013, every team hosted a “Hispanic Heritage Month event, from youth clinics in Atlanta and Indianapolis to a “Fiesta Latina” in Oakland (SJG Blog, 2013).  Like Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the NFL, celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month seems fairly philanthropic.  How nice of a massive entity to help those who are marginalized in American Society?  But all one has to do is look up recent United States census results to see why the NFL has taken such a liking to this section of the population. The growth of the Hispanic population in the United States has been exponential, and that growth shows no signs of stopping.  “Hispanics have accounted for about half the country's population growth since 2000. They now make up approximately 15 percent of the population. By 2050, according to some estimates, they could be anything from a quarter to a third of the population” (Kruse & Deggans, 2009).  Yet, while NFL popularity among Hispanic viewers is on the rise, their potential as viewers and consumers has remained largely untapped and is seemingly endless.  The year 2012 was the most-viewed NFL season among Hispanics (Jessop, 2013), but for the week of November 4, 2013 no professional football programming was in the top 10 of primetime broadcasts among this population (Nielsen, 2013).  Essentially, while viewership is up for Hispanics, it is still nowhere near the national average.  This fact alone must make NFL executives salivate.  Not only do they have an entire market of viewers that has not yet reached its viewership plateau, but also this market is growing at a rapid pace.  The future looks bright.

The NFL has established itself as the premier show on television for quite some time.  According to the Nielsen Television Ratings, since September 5^th of this year, 19 of the top 20 most watched shows on television have been NFL games, with an average of 16.8 million people tuning into watch each game (Brown, 2013).  In an age characterized by fragmented audiences, niche channels, and millions of options, the fact that NFL games are able to draw such a ridiculously large amount of viewers speaks to the League’s magnetism.  This phenomenon is not by accident, however. By promoting itself as a league where everyone belongs, the NFL has been able to garner viewers from every  background.  While the product of the NFL is certainly strong enough to stand-alone and maintain a high level of popularity, the league’s ability to market itself to nearly every viewing demographic has made it the ratings king it currently is.

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